ASTONISHING

Google tells me that there have been more than 6500 comments posted to this blog.  That is a staggering number in little more than five years.  When I was teaching, was there ever a like period of time during which I had six thousand five hundred questions or comments in my classes?  I doubt it [and certainly not of the quality of the blog comments].  Thank you all for staying with me.

I am off to Paris tomorrow, arriving on Tuesday, so there will be a hiatus of several days before I am up and running in the Paris apartment.  I trust the world will manage to survive without me for that period of time.  I am looking forward to my urban walks in the early Paris mornings.

By the way, my idea for playing the trill passages did not work out, but I think I am managing them nonetheless.  The real problem is the last movement of K424 -- andante con variazione -- which Mozart, lord bless him, wrote as maddeningly tricky for the viola.  I think he got bored and just amused himself with weird stuff by about the third variation.  I shall practice it in my head while I am in Paris and see whether I can master it.